WASHINGTON: COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of state-run ocean carrier China COSCO Shipping Corp., said in a notice filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it expects to record a net loss attributable to equity holders for 2016 of approximately 9.9 billion Chinese yuan renminbi (U.S. $1.4 billion) in contrast to the 283 million yuan renminbi (RMB) profit it recorded for 2015. However, the company did say that in 2016, it “had gradually achieved synergies generated from its business restructuring, and the performance of the group significantly improved on a quarterly basis.”
COSCO SHIPPING Holdings does expect to have earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of approximately 700 million RMB for the fourth quarter of 2016 “without taking into account the net loss incurred by demolition of vessels.” The company said that in 2016, “With slow growth in global container shipping demand and oversupply of shipping capacity, the international shipping market still lacked solid improvement in addressing the imbalance in supply and demand.” In addition, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings noted how the Baltic Dry Index for dry bulk ships, along with the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index and the China Containerized Freight Index for containerized exports from China, all dropped to a historic lows in 2016.
